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I was a stranger in this world." LSD After Dinner. In somewhat smaller doses, LSD may have the opposite effect and actually help psychiatrists to clear up mental illnesses. British researchers have found it useful in psychoneuroses, generally rated as the milder forms of emotional disturbance (TIME, June 28, 1954). In Manhattan, Psychiatrist Harold A. Abramson of the Cold Spring Harbor Biological Laboratory has developed a technique of serving dinner to a group of subjects, topping off the meal with a liqueur glass containing 40 micrograms of LSD. Instead of upsetting the subjects, it often helps them to recall and relive—in each other's presence—experiences and emotions of childhood that previously had been too painful to face.
A prize example among Dr. Abramson's cases is a woman of 35 who had made good progress in analytic interviews and had recalled dreams which brought into focus a problem of latent homosexuality.
Still she could not face the issue and work it through. Under LSD she lost some of her fear of the problem, and in a four-hour interview gained the understanding that gave her control of the emotions entangled in it.
So far, Dr. Abramson is almost alone among, U.S. psychiatrists in using LSD for treatment, and like other doctors, he raises a warning finger: it is a dangerous drug, to be used only under strictest medical supervision.